The week of the U.S. Open was eventful to say the least! My week started Tuesday when I received a phone call telling me that the lower seal of my starboard motor was leaking. So we made a phone call to Bobby Lovingood and he responded right away and solved the issue. The same day Capt. Rickey did his once over inspection of the Do Work and found a slight oil leak in the port motor! I'll skip telling what my response was when I found that out, but the ones who know me will have a good guess. Once again a call was made to Bobby Lovingood and he responded right away to fix the leak. So a special thanks to Bobby Lovingood! Without his assistance, none of the rest of the story would' ve ever happened.

The Do Work/OIFC team consisted of Capt. Rickey aka Papa D (we all know him), Steve Lanier, Amanda Bennett (OIFC Staff), Ben Morris (OIFC Staff), and myself. Courtney and Camdyn had to sit this one out. They had to go to Durham and represent us at a family reunion and birthday party. I had a spot in mind in about 65 foot of water to start the fishing on Friday morning. We loaded the Do Work and pulled away from the dock and took our time getting to the Lockwood Folly Inlet to check out. Once we made our way through the check out, we found our bait just down from the inlet. With one throw of our Capt. Brant’s Custom Cast net, we had all the big pogies we needed. I then turned the Do Work offshore and away we went. We arrived at our spot around 8:00 a.m. The crew put the baits out and we began to troll. At 8:45 everything went WILD! We had a triple header on and all the fish seemed to be a good class of fish. I knew the one Papa D was fighting was the one we wanted. Lucky for us, all the fish ran in opposite directions. The first two fish were landed and all focus was put on Papa D’s fish, which struck a naked pogey. He battled the fish like a pro, and once the fish came into gaff range Ben stuck it and she was brought on board. Hugs and high fives were given, and our fish was iced down. We continued to catch a good class of fish for the remainder of the time we spent out there. The anticipation finally got to us and we had to go weigh. So around 11:00ish we pulled all lines in and headed towards Southport. Once at the scales, we discovered that our fish weighed 35.45. Once again hugs and high fives were given. We paused long enough for a quick photo op, then loaded back up and headed to the same spot to try and better our fish. Once we arrived back to the fishing grounds, we learned that the bite had slowed. We continued to fish and were picking at a few fish. Ben was putting a bait back out when it got absolutely SMOKED. It was like nothing I have ever seen before. The fish stripped several hundred yards of line then did a complete circle around the boat and headed off shore. I would’ve bet you at the time we hooked a submarine. You could hear the line cutting through the water and it was making a wake. Ben fought the fish and eventually it was brought in close enough to be gaffed. YES, wahoo steaks for everyone. The fish was iced and later weighed at the OIFC where it tipped the scales at 44 pounds. For everyone wondering, did I get excited when the fish hit? YES! At the end of day one, we had a 35.45 KIng at the scales and a 44 pound wahoo on the dock. What a great day! The team did awesome for the first time fishing together. We landed every fish we had on with the exception of one. That included a triple header where one fish was 35 lbs. along with several double headers.

Day two was no where near as exciting on the fishing scene as Friday. We checked out and finding bait was no problem again. We headed to the same area hoping for the same action. The action was just not there. In the famous words of a good friend of the mine, “it started off slow and just tapered off from there”. We only had one strike. It was a good one on the down rigger, but the wire broke. We then jumped around to several different water depths and only caught one Spanish Mackerel all day. We then pulled lines in and headed to the dock to prepare to head to Southport to see how Team Do Work/OIFC finished.

Now here’s where the day two excitement begins. We look at the board and see where we finished 8th overall, 2nd place lady and won a special weight. Once again hugs and high fives were passed around. What a great feeing it was, one I will never forget. It was nice seeing all the local teams receiving awards and seeing the OIFC name on the leader board several times. I would like to thank everyone for the calls, texts and handshakes of congratulations. I would personally like to thank all the members of the team, Papa D, Steve Lanier, Amanda Bennett and Ben Morris, you did awesome! A special thanks goes to Ocean Isle Fishing Center and the McMullan family, Dr. Jeremy Phillips of Elite Performance Chiropractic, and Bobby Lovingood. They are the ones who have taught me a ton and help keep Team Do Work/OIFC on the water. That’s our recap of the 2013 U.S. Open, can’t wait to see everyone at the Fall Brawl next weekend!

Name:*

Email:*

Comment:*

The week of the U.S. Open was eventful to say the least! My week started Tuesday when I received a phone call telling me that the lower seal of my starboard motor was leaking. So we made a phone call to Bobby Lovingood and he responded right away and solved the issue. The same day Capt. Rickey did his once over inspection of the Do Work and found a slight oil leak in the port motor! I'll skip telling what my response was when I found that out, but the ones who know me will have a good guess. Once again a call was made to Bobby Lovingood and he responded right away to fix the leak. So a special thanks to Bobby Lovingood! Without his assistance, none of the rest of the story would' ve ever happened.

The Do Work/OIFC team consisted of Capt. Rickey aka Papa D (we all know him), Steve Lanier, Amanda Bennett (OIFC Staff), Ben Morris (OIFC Staff), and myself. Courtney and Camdyn had to sit this one out. They had to go to Durham and represent us at a family reunion and birthday party. I had a spot in mind in about 65 foot of water to start the fishing on Friday morning. We loaded the Do Work and pulled away from the dock and took our time getting to the Lockwood Folly Inlet to check out. Once we made our way through the check out, we found our bait just down from the inlet. With one throw of our Capt. Brant’s Custom Cast net, we had all the big pogies we needed. I then turned the Do Work offshore and away we went. We arrived at our spot around 8:00 a.m. The crew put the baits out and we began to troll. At 8:45 everything went WILD! We had a triple header on and all the fish seemed to be a good class of fish. I knew the one Papa D was fighting was the one we wanted. Lucky for us, all the fish ran in opposite directions. The first two fish were landed and all focus was put on Papa D’s fish, which struck a naked pogey. He battled the fish like a pro, and once the fish came into gaff range Ben stuck it and she was brought on board. Hugs and high fives were given, and our fish was iced down. We continued to catch a good class of fish for the remainder of the time we spent out there. The anticipation finally got to us and we had to go weigh. So around 11:00ish we pulled all lines in and headed towards Southport. Once at the scales, we discovered that our fish weighed 35.45. Once again hugs and high fives were given. We paused long enough for a quick photo op, then loaded back up and headed to the same spot to try and better our fish. Once we arrived back to the fishing grounds, we learned that the bite had slowed. We continued to fish and were picking at a few fish. Ben was putting a bait back out when it got absolutely SMOKED. It was like nothing I have ever seen before. The fish stripped several hundred yards of line then did a complete circle around the boat and headed off shore. I would’ve bet you at the time we hooked a submarine. You could hear the line cutting through the water and it was making a wake. Ben fought the fish and eventually it was brought in close enough to be gaffed. YES, wahoo steaks for everyone. The fish was iced and later weighed at the OIFC where it tipped the scales at 44 pounds. For everyone wondering, did I get excited when the fish hit? YES! At the end of day one, we had a 35.45 KIng at the scales and a 44 pound wahoo on the dock. What a great day! The team did awesome for the first time fishing together. We landed every fish we had on with the exception of one. That included a triple header where one fish was 35 lbs. along with several double headers.

Day two was no where near as exciting on the fishing scene as Friday. We checked out and finding bait was no problem again. We headed to the same area hoping for the same action. The action was just not there. In the famous words of a good friend of the mine, “it started off slow and just tapered off from there”. We only had one strike. It was a good one on the down rigger, but the wire broke. We then jumped around to several different water depths and only caught one Spanish Mackerel all day. We then pulled lines in and headed to the dock to prepare to head to Southport to see how Team Do Work/OIFC finished.

Now here’s where the day two excitement begins. We look at the board and see where we finished 8th overall, 2nd place lady and won a special weight. Once again hugs and high fives were passed around. What a great feeing it was, one I will never forget. It was nice seeing all the local teams receiving awards and seeing the OIFC name on the leader board several times. I would like to thank everyone for the calls, texts and handshakes of congratulations. I would personally like to thank all the members of the team, Papa D, Steve Lanier, Amanda Bennett and Ben Morris, you did awesome! A special thanks goes to Ocean Isle Fishing Center and the McMullan family, Dr. Jeremy Phillips of Elite Performance Chiropractic, and Bobby Lovingood. They are the ones who have taught me a ton and help keep Team Do Work/OIFC on the water. That’s our recap of the 2013 U.S. Open, can’t wait to see everyone at the Fall Brawl next weekend!

Name:*

Email:*

Comment:*

Capt. Brant 10/07/2013

Proud of you guys! Hey not too shabby for the Beeracuda team as well -- good job guys! Hope to see all of you at the Brawl. Classic Fall beach bite to commence -- just watch.

Beeracuda Fishing Team 10/06/2013

Congrats to Do Work on a big finish in the open!

Capt. Rickey 10/06/2013

To add my two cents worth....The OIFC Teams work closely together and we have many "proud sponsors". There are two sponsors who have been with Team OIFC/Do Work befor the OIFC Team concept was envisioned by Capt. Brant and stayed on to sponsor all the teams. They are Sea Tow Ocean Isle Beach and Crossfit Ocean Isle Beach. Many many thanks to them and the many other business who provide sponsorship. They are special to us because they offered their help in a tough economy and we ask everyone to support them.

I'll probsably get in trouble with the "powers to be', but I am going ahead and declare that next weekends Fall Brawl King Mackerel Tourney will be an explosive all out beach bite. Fishing at US Open was good, but fish were still scattered. This week a strong cold front comes thru Tuesday/Wednesday with north winds. By the weekend high pressure will be on top of us and north winds will have layed out to offer perfect King conditions at the River Channel/Yaupon/Lockwood Inlet and maybe Shallotte Inlet. Look for the scattered Kings to school up in the above spots[probably best in river channel].To all the US Open fishermen, come join us at the Fall Brawl for this amazing fall expereince we all look forward to with the classic Carolina beach bite. It will be on!!!

Name:*

Email:*

Comment:*

Friday Amy and I fished and weighed a 29.75 and 25.. Today Caroline, Brayden and KK joined us and scaled a 31.5 and 27...
Fishing was pretty good, not red hot- but quality of fish was impressive. I'm not sure how we finished but when we weighed our 31 was 29th... Tons of big fish including a 47 that I think won.
Capt. Brant McMullan
OIFC
-
Brant McMullan

Name:*

Email:*

Comment:*

The creeks are producing red drum, black drum, sheepshead, flounder, and bluefish. The waterway and inlets are slam full of bait! The bluefish are thicker than fleas. Big bull reds are coming and going with the tides. It is an exciting time to be on the water. The weather looks very stable for the next couple of days. Not sure what Karen in the Gulf is going to do early next week? I hope the action hangs on for just a few more weeks. I love catching those big ole redfish. See ya on the water!

Email:*

Comment:*

Joe Seegers 10/02/2013

Started with live bait Kings on Yaupom. Caught a couple. Left and had lines n water near Steeples at 11:30. Fished til 5:30 and went 11 for 20 on Hoos from 25-45lbs. One quad that we went 4 for 4 on, several doubles and picked singles. Like normal wahoo fishing, we lost quite a few. Almost to dock now, barely light- flat sea.
Capt. Brant McMullan
OIFC
-
Brant McMullan

Bob neWell 10/02/2013

Bob neWell 10/02/2013

Looks like the Kings haved figured it out. Baits here, water color is here, calendar is here, US Open is here: Kings are here, there and everywhere. There was a good bite yesterday from the beach to the blue water; it's game on folks....You should be here!

Name:*

Email:*

Comment:*

Did a "king conditions" recon yesterday; ran from Shallotte Inlet up to Cape Fear. The water is full of mullets/pogies/greenies/spanish/blues from the breakers out to 30 feet. The water is "almost" king green and probably getting better color every tide. Not sure what the communication channel is for the kings to hear this report but seems like they are bound to get the message and show up in the river Channel as they seem to do every year for the USOpen. Only thing that may slow them down is lack of cold front this week. Weather very stable this week. Lite winds/slight seas. Come on down; it is magnificant here at the beach.

Name:*

Email:*

Comment:*

Sounds like fish were doing their typical late September thing where they were widely scatterred in Rumble tourney this weekend. Leading fish came from Yaupon to 90's to Jungle area. Will be interesting to see if fish figure out it is US Open this coming weekend and they show up in mass in River Channel as it seems they always do. Looking at stable summer type weather this week, my guess is the weather will win out over the calendar and fish will still be scattered. What we need is for a strong cold front to get here and cool water so fish will move to the beach. We'll keep posted on what we see this week.

Name:*

Email:*

Comment:*

What a weekend! The wind has been howling from the North and East! Don't let that slow you down. The jetties have been a little sloppy, but very fishable. We have taken advantage of the Fall drum bite and been there on most trips. We have yet to be disappointed...we are not catching numbers of fish, but we are catching some over 40 inches. It has been great to see so many folks enjoying this fishery. See ya on the water!

Name:*

Email:*

Comment:*

The action is pretty steady out at the jetties. If you are looking for a chance to catch that one big drum, now is the time. Big mullet and king size mehanden are the baits of choice. Blue crab chunks may also be a very good bait that could get the bite when others don't seem to be working. Below is a link to a video I shot this past Friday. We went 5 for 5 on the big drum. More reports coming...See ya on the water!

Name:*

Email:*

Comment:*

Virginia Beckham took this picture yesterday of Carmine, of Calabash Bagel catching this red drum yesterday at the Little River Jetties, Carmine wanted picture proof because he figured no one would believe him...That's crazy!!!!

Name:*

Email:*

Comment:*

The last couple of days have been a little more consistent for me. The redfish in the 22 inch range have cooperated well in the creeks. Bob Diseker gets credit for landing our biggest creek fish this week that was 29 1/2 inches. The flounder are sliding in the inlets and some big fish have started to show up. We are starting to see some speckled trout scattered throughout the area. I have caught a couple on each trip this past week and Capt. Jeff's crew drilled a stud earlier this week. The only thing that has me concerned is the lack of live shrimp. I have cast netted several of my favorite creeks the last two days without getting the first shrimp? A little early for them to start disappearing. The water temperature is dropping quickly as one cold front after another pushes through our area. The water temp in the creeks this afternoon was down to 73 degrees. The fish should be chewing the prop of the motor! See ya on the water!

Name:*

Email:*

Comment:*

Local in shore greats Henry Beckham & his daughter Virginia Beckham proved that the "slob" red drum are still biting at the Jetties. Captain Jacob told me the big mullet are the food of choice if you want to target some fun fish.